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Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Durban - Still reeling from shock from a previous armed robbery, residents at a Roman Catholic Church monastery in Marianhill endured another harrowing armed robbery on Monday morning.

A group of about 10 gun-wielding criminals assaulted a priest and a monk and stole more than R10 000 in cash.

It was the second incident in four weeks and the tenth in the past few years. Commenting on the ordeal, the monk Konrad Diethei said the criminals nearly killed him when he refused to show them where money was kept.

"Some of them were carrying AK-47s and all of them were armed.

The whole thing lasted for about 20 minutes but it was like eternity. It was very traumatic." Diethei, who runs a dairy farm, said he was at the farm near the monastery with the farm workers when they were accosted by a group of men who demanded cash.

"When they saw that there was no money on the farm, they forced me to drive to my room where they forced me to give them cash. They took about R12 000 and a laptop. One of them remained on the farm holding the workers hostage," he said. They also entered Father Emmanuel's room and took his laptop.

"It was like a military operation.

They were all shouting in the passages," Diethei said. Diethei, who is originally from Germany, said his nephew and his wife were enjoying their honeymoon in Marianhill. "They were shocked when I told them about what happened. They are going back to Germany today," he said.

He said that monastery residents were worried because criminals were now entering their rooms. "All other incidents took place at the farm. Criminals have never entered our rooms.

This is very worrying," said Diethei. Roman Catholic Church spokesman Gideon Sibanda said police arrived an hour after they were informed of the incident. "They also did the same thing when we informed them about the armed robbery in December.

This is very worrying because they came when criminals have had time to hide," he said.